I saw a response to my Taxes in Israel II post by “Kalashnikover_Rebbe” on Hashkafa.com:

I was actually almost in this situation (in the end I didn’t end up working so it was irrelevant). I would just “neglect to inform” the Israeli government about that income and pay the MUCH lower US taxes. But ideally I would as [sic] the company to pay me as a “foreign Israeli national” thereby being exempted of paying US taxes as well and just being careful not to allow the Israeli tax authorities to notice the money (like not regularly deposit large amounts in an Israeli bank account)…

Most check cashing places take 1.5%, a LOT less than either the US or Israel would take out…..

To paraphrase: Thus individual would break the law by lying to the Israeli government about his current status of being employed (since in Israel, you are currently taxed on global income). That is how I would classify “neglecting to inform” the government, especially when you take measures like avoiding regular deposits of large sums, in order not to be noticed by Mas hachnassah.

Also, he would do some income tax evasion by not reporting his income to the IRS (though I do not understand the whole “foreign Israeli national” scheme, since as a US citizen, you are obligated to file a tax return on your income no matter where you live - I don’t see how such a status would exempt you from paying US taxes, unless he is just referring to Social Security and Medicare. If that is the case, and he is in fact a US citizen, it is still against the law).

And why are you paying 1.5% on check cashing? Cheerfully Changed is 1% (and free for wire transfers, though since this might leave more evidence against you, you would probably avoid it).

Unfortunately, “Kalashnikover_Rebbe” is not alone in his enthusiasm for tax evasion in Israel (and the US). As you can tell above, I am not supportive of this approach. There are legal ways to exempt yourself from paying certain categories of taxes in both the US and Israel (tax avoidance, as I have attempted to detail in a couple of previous posts), just as there are illegal ways (tax evasion). To each his own…